Forever with Me (With Me in Seattle, #8)(33)

“Are you f*cking kidding me?” Isaac yells, as the rest of the brothers laugh. “You can’t use my body wash!”

“It’s soap, dude,” Caleb says with a shake of the head. Caleb is only a year older than me.

“I have to burn the f*cking body wash now,” Isaac mutters.

I stand back and take them all in. Not only are all four of my brothers here, both Luke and Mark Williams are here, along with Leo Nash and Nate McKenna as well.

The whole f*cking family.

Mark is measuring boards and Isaac is manning a saw. I frown as I realize they’re all in jeans, holding tools, hammering boards.

Even McKenna.

“Are we having a party that I wasn’t aware of?” I ask as I approach.

“Oh, good, you’re here.” Will grins and shakes my hand, then claps my shoulder. “We’re making the arbor.”

“We are?” I glance toward Isaac. “Don’t you have a crew for this?”

“We decided this would be more meaningful,” Luke replies with a smile. “We’re making the arbor, and Will is going to take it home after the wedding and put it in their garden.”

“It’s something from the brothers,” Leo adds with a grimace. “I tried to talk them into just letting me write a song, but Will has his pansy ass set on something pretty for the garden.”

“Fuck you, man, Meg loves the garden,” Will replies, and then grabs Leo into a headlock and rubs his head with his knuckles. “You telling me that if Sam said she wanted pretty in the garden, you wouldn’t give it to her?”

“I’d give her anything she asked for,” Leo replies as he wrestles out of Will’s hold. “And did just this morning.”

“Watch it,” Luke advises. “She may be your wife now, but she’s my sister, and I can still kick your ass if need be.”

Matt shakes his head and rolls his eyes. “Anyway,” he says, and grins at me. “We were waiting for you. You have to hammer some nails for your soon-to-be sister-in-law too.”

I roll my sleeves and take an offered hammer from Mark.

“How’s the baby?” Caleb asks Nate, and we all crack up when the tall, tough former fighter breaks out in a goofy grin.

“Stella’s awesome.” Nate wipes his sweaty forehead on his black T-shirt and takes a long drink of water. “She’s f*cking beautiful.”

“Well, look at her mother,” Mark says off-handedly as he measures out more boards, earning a raised brow from Nate.

“Have you been looking at her mother?” Nate asks, and we all glance at each other, trying to hold our laughter in.

“Sure, I mean—” Mark suddenly stops and frowns and then looks at Nate. “Dude, not like that. It’s Jules, for f*ck sake.”

“I’m well aware of who Stella’s mother is,” Nate replies with a chuckle. “And you’re right. She’s gorgeous, so it makes sense that I’ll have my hands full with Stella.”

“This family is good at producing beautiful babies,” Isaac agrees.

“I find it a bit disturbing that there are no women around and we’re talking about babies,” Will says. “Shouldn’t we be talking about sex and cars and football?”

“If you talk about sex,” Leo begins, “you’ll be talking about my sister, and that’s not okay.”

“How are things with Meredith?” I ask Mark, steering the conversation away from sex and babies.

“Great.” He grins and passes a board to Isaac for cutting.

“And how are you feeling?” Caleb asks him. We all sober as we wait for his response. Mark was hit by a car while on the job more than a month ago, and while the injuries weren’t serious, it was a scary time for the family.

“I’m good as new,” he replies. “But I don’t mind having Meredith around to coddle me now and then.”

“And how are all your beautiful girls?” I ask. The guys all nod and grin, thinking of their women. I can’t help but think of my woman and smile myself.

“My woman is gonna love this,” Will says, as he gestures to the wood lying in a heap on the ground. “She has no idea. And it’s going to mean more to her because you all made it for her.” Will’s face sobers as he looks at each of us. “No one’s ever needed family more than my Megan.”

“Well, she has it in spades now,” Caleb replies and strips his sweaty shirt off, tossing it aside.

“Okay, boards are cut,” Isaac announces and then begins giving us all instructions on the most efficient way to assemble it, and we break off into teams.

“You’re quiet today,” Caleb comments as he, Matt and myself work on the top of the arbor.

“I’m quiet every day,” I reply. “Besides, you’re one to talk.”

Caleb shrugs and passes me a handful of nails.

“Who is she?” Matt asks quietly.

“Who is who?”

“The woman that put that shit-eating smile on your face earlier.”

“That’s an unfortunate turn of phrase,” I reply.

“It’s a woman,” Caleb confirms. “He’s evading.”

“I’m not evading.”

They both stop what they’re doing and stare at me, then bust up laughing.